Founded in 1842-43 as a key point of the Orenburg Kazakh troops at the
new frontier line. Its name was given to commemorate the the
seizure of the Turkish fortress Varna by the Russian troops on 28th
September, 1828 in the Russo-Turkish War in 1828-1829.

For a larger image click on the map to the right. (Opens in a new window).

In 1854 a certain Josiah Brown Secord from Chinguacousy Township, near
Brampton, Ont., settled in that area. The place was named after the Bulgarian
fortress
Varna, a port from which thousands of soldiers in the years of the
Crimean War sailed towards the battlefield in
the Crimea. Josiah's father Stephen was Laura Secord's nephew and the Secords
were lineal descendants of the Huguenots in France. Initially Varna and
its surrounding area were a part of the Huron lands owned by a Canadian
company set up by John Galt in 1826. Formerly those barren lands had been
the home of the Chippewa Indians who later on sold that place.

For a larger image click on the map to the right. (Opens in a new window).